In Depth

In overturning a lower court’s ruling, the Indiana Court of Appeals opened the door for the doctrine of laches to be
applied to the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles by finding the suspension of a Bloomington woman’s driving privileges
conflicts with the public’s interest in reducing poverty.

From 2002 to 2004, Leslee Orndorff received 17 driving convictions and had her driving privileges suspended 18 times. In
2008, she moved with her two children to Bloomington, obtained a valid driver’s license and got a job as a personal
care attendant.

Four years later, the BMV discovered the Orndorff qualified as a habitual traffic violator and sent her a notice that her
driving privileges would be suspended for 10 years, effective May 29, 2012.

Orndorff filed a complaint against the BMV alleging that the equitable doctrine of laches prevented the state agency from
suspending her driving privileges and requesting a preliminary injunction to stop the suspension. The trial court denied her
request for a preliminary injunction, concluding, in part, that it was unlikely that laches would apply to the government.

For Orndorff to assert laches against a government entity, she had an additional requirement to show that the government
was not acting in its sovereign capacity to protect the public welfare.

The trial court noted that Orndorff will suffer adverse effects if her driving privileges are suspended and that those adverse
effects, namely that she will lose her job and her family will be thrust into poverty, threaten the public interest. However,
it ruled that the adverse effect that will be suffered by Orndorff’s family does not appear to constitute the sort of
public threat that should prevent the BMV from suspending her driving privileges.

The COA disagreed, finding that the public has a real and tangible interest in reducing poverty and that since 2008, Orndorff
has not incurred any driving convictions.

Writing for the court, Judge Terry Crone concluded, “Based on the particular circumstances of this case, we have concluded
that suspending Orndorff’s driving privileges presents a threat to the public interest and that no public interest will
be served by suspending her driving privileges.”

Conversations

0 Comments

Post a comment to this story

We reserve the right to remove any post that we feel is obscene, profane, vulgar, racist, sexually explicit, abusive, or
hateful.

You are legally responsible for what you post and your anonymity is not guaranteed.

Posts that insult, defame, threaten, harass or abuse other readers or people mentioned in Indiana Lawyer editorial content
are also subject to removal. Please respect the privacy of individuals and refrain from posting personal information.

No solicitations, spamming or advertisements are allowed. Readers may post links to other informational websites that are
relevant to the topic at hand, but please do not link to objectionable material.

We may remove messages that are unrelated to the topic, encourage illegal activity, use all capital letters or are unreadable.

Messages that are flagged by readers as objectionable will be reviewed and may or may not be removed. Please do not flag
a post simply because you disagree with it.